According to BACS, the national average for outstanding payments was frighteningly high in 2008, increasing from £8,000 to £38,000.

Michael Chambers, managing director of BACS, said:

"This research demonstrates the pain being felt by many small and medium-sized British businesses during these challenging economic times, and late payments could well be a major factor in the success or failure of these companies in the year ahead – SMEs are currently disappearing at a rate of 86 every day."

In addition to the BACS survey, Barclays conducted its own Late Payment Survey in February of this year. Click here for a summary of the key findings.

Two of the main problems identified by each business in this survey were:
1) Waste of resources when chasing payments
2) Being prevented from paying their own suppliers on time

Take a look at 'The truth about CREDITFOCUS' section below for a key example of how CREDITFOCUS has helped users to overcome these problems and how it can also help you.

*Source: guardian.co.uk 10.03.09

Owners of thriving business, Prestige Servicing can thank CREDITFOCUS for raising confidence they will get paid

When Kevin Hunter and Tony Davies of Prestige Servicing expanded their business
into bigger premises in 2008 it allowed them to take on more work than ever.
However, they didn't anticipate the new challenges it would bring. Two of the new contracts the company took on wanted credit terms.

As Kevin and Tony had never done this before, they
were apprehensive about entering this kind of deal
at first, reasoning that, in a worst case scenario,
they might not even get paid for their work.

As a precaution, they subscribed to CREDITFOCUS
Pro giving them a better idea of who they are
offering credit to, how much credit they should
offer to each customer and the length of
payment terms to give to customers.
This has given them more confidence that
they will get the money that they are owed.

Click here to read The Times article
featuring Kevin and Tony.

Thousands of our customers are using debt recovery solicitor’s letters to recover their unpaid invoices

What you need to know…

CREDITFOCUS has chased nearly £15 million for its customers and in 70% of cases customers have recovered some or all of their money

These customers used CREDITFOCUS to instruct a debt recovery solicitor to chase the debt on their behalf via a solicitor's letter. The letter warns the customer that they will start court proceedings if the debt is not paid within seven days and in most cases is enough to prompt the customer to pay the outstanding debt.

We often receive queries from customers about the solicitor's letter functionality in CREDITFOCUS, so in this issue of e-news we'll cover what they are and when to send them.

Click here to find out more about chasing your unpaid invoices with CREDITFOCUS.

CREDITFOCUS is
National Business
Awards regional finalist

CREDITFOCUS has made it through to the regional finals of the 2009 Orange National Business Awards in the category for 'Best Use of Technology'. We'll find out if we've won later in the year. Watch this space for an update...

Click here to read more about the Awards.

Customer satisfaction
survey results

Earlier in the year we conducted a
customer survey to find out what you (our customers) really think of CREDITFOCUS. Here's a snapshot of what we learnt:

93% of customers find the
information it provides easy
to understand

88% of customers believe it
offers good value for money

80% of customers find the
information it provides invaluable

83% of customers would
recommend it to other businesses.

Product update

When you next view your existing customers in CREDITFOCUS you will see a new graph showing the previous 6 months worth of credit scores for your customer. Check out this new update by logging into your CREDITFOCUS account now: Click here.

This product update was provided in response to customer feedback. Watch this space for more product updates in future issues of the CREDITFOCUS e-news...